Data filing systems often organize computer storage into volumes. Each volume is a logical representation of where data is stored, though it may correspond to part of one or many hardware storage devices.
These filing systems may use file system metadata to organize and track files stored on these volumes. The integrity of file system metadata, however, may be compromised, such as when hardware storage devices fail.
To address potential errors in file system metadata, various computer programs may be used. “Check disk” (a.k.a. “Chkdsk”), for example, may detect and fix errors. These and other error detection and correction programs, as well as other programs run on volumes, may require exclusive access to a volume. Exclusive access means that other programs or entities may not interact with that volume. A user, for example, may not access a song or word-processing file stored in a volume while one of these programs is running.
Further, some of these programs take an unknown amount of time. A system administrator, for example, may run Chkdsk starting at midnight Friday after most workers have gone home. The system administrator may not know if the program will prevent user access until Saturday morning or through Monday night. If it runs through Monday night users may not access their files for a whole workday.